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The more I see of Dark Souls III, the more it reminds me of Bloodborne.

I have mixed feelings about this. I mean, it looks fantastic. The graphics are better than any other Souls game without question, and the mood and atmosphere even in just the screenshots I've seen are certainly very in keeping with what we'd expect from the dark, brooding Souls games.

It's just that, they're also very, very reminiscent of Bloodborne, to the point that a good deal of the buildings and some areas look almost like slightly retooled Bloodborne assets. The below video, captured from a From Software livestream by YouTuber Glimore Mizzi, shows the nimble Thief build in the Untended Graves area of the game, which looks a lot like Bloodborne's Hemwick Charnel Lane:

And it makes sense that From Software would take what they learned, and used, in Bloodborne and bring that to Dark Souls III. Demon's Souls predated Dark Souls, but influenced just about every corner of that game. (Except the magic bar, which returns here in Dark Souls III.)

Nor does it look to mimic Bloodborne exactly. The Thief is a faster class to begin with; this isn't representative of the heavier tank builds you can put together. I'm actually really excited to play a really heavy tank build this time around. Even before Bloodborne I'd been playing lighter builds in all three of the Souls games for a long time, having only really gone tank when I first played Dark Souls.

I guess I just hope that the game is closer in spirit to the original Dark Souls than it is to Bloodborne. For all that I've loved about Dark Souls II and Bloodborne, neither has quite scratched that itch for me. Maybe no game ever will.